Study: New colon cleaner effective in smaller dose

Mary HattlerMobile gastroenterologist Dr. Jack DiPalma led a two-year study of a new liquid used to prepare for a colonoscopy that requires drinking just one liter of solution before´hand. Currently, most patients must ingest up to four times that amount of a chalky liquid when preparing for the test.There’s a doctor in Mobile who wants to make the preparation for a colonoscopy — the standard procedure for detecting colon cancer — easier to swallow.

Now, most patients spend the night before the test to check the colon swigging four liters of chalky medicine.

Dr. Jack A. DiPalma, a Mobile gastroenterologist, led a two-year study of a new liquid used to prepare for a colonoscopy that requires drinking just one liter of solution beforehand.

The findings were published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

DiPalma, medical director of the University of South Alabama’s Digestive Health Center, hopes to get FDA approval for the new oral sulfate colon-cleansing solution by November.

Which means, he said, patients in Mobile and beyond may soon be swallowing much less before the test used to detect changes or abnormalities in the large intestine and rectum.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2005, the most recent year for which statistics were available, 72,007 men and 69,398 women were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The same year 26,781 men and 26,224 women died from colon cancer, the CDC noted.

"I consider it a completely preventable disease," DiPalma said, noting that only about 40 percent of those at risk actually have the test. "We need to do better than that."

The risk of getting colorectal cancer increases with age and a family history of the disease, and is greater in men than in women, he said.

DiPalma said he hopes making the preparation more tolerable will mean more patients get screened for colon cancer.

"The study confirmed that this new solution produces the same degree of cleansing as other solutions," DiPalma said, noting that other preparation-related symptoms of cramping, bloating, nausea and vomiting "were generally mild and infrequent."

For a colonoscopy to be performed properly, DiPalma said, the colon must be free of solid matter.

During a colonoscopy, a flexible tube is inserted into a patient’s rectum. A tiny video camera at the tip of the tube allows the doctor to view the inside of the colon. If necessary, abnormal tissue can be removed through the scope during a colonoscopy.

DiPalma said he has spent more than 25 years working with researchers and other physicians to develop other colon-cleansing solutions now used for colonoscopy preparation.

The latest two-year random study for the lower-volume liquid, he said, involved 387 patients who tried the solution at two medical centers for routine elective colonoscopies.

"For those who have had the experience before," DiPalma said, "they found it easier than the other (liquid) and were willing to repeat it in the future."